sianlee

I read Phil Bacharach's DVD review of The Number 23 at http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=29024 and...

What I want to know is, how much do you get paid to pull that stuff out of your butt and exagurate it beyond comparison? I tell you, it must be a damn lot. You can't keep an open mind can you?

What critics do now-a-days when they see the word "Jim Carrey" they think "Comedy. Better be a comedy, that way it at least get's a 3/10." But no, as soon as you guys hear it's a serious movie you'se have got a negative mind from the start and can't appreciate the movie for what message it's trying to portray in a serious manner.

I can gaurentee that if Jim Carrey wasn't in this movie, and you saw Joel Schumacher as the director you would have thought "Wow, i'm going to see this movie, it sounds great! He's done some awesome movies... this can't be less than a 6/10".

I thought the number 23 was a good movie to watch, and this is coming from a person that still uses fingers for maths as well, and I had no problem following the mathamatical equations in this movie.

Why bother watching a movie that you have negative thoughts towards? Obviously you knew the movie would be about the number 23, lol, no doubt if they had cut down the use of putting the number 23 in the movie everywhere you would have still complained about it - with this as a headline for your article "The Number 23 ... a movie detailing anything but the number". If you can't appreciate the creativness in the movie, don't bother even writing a review. Most people want to see reviews based on an unbiased decision. If I walked into the movie thinking that Jim was an ok actor, and I wasn't biased (being a fan of Jim) I would have still given the movie a good rating and review because I thought it was a great attempt in bringing the 23 enigma into our theatres.

Heh, did you know the sequal to that movie is coming out? "The Number 23 II: The Number 47". I'll be looking forward to giving some constructive critisism to your 'critic review' to that film.

sianlee

By the way.... the sequal was just a joke

Adam Tyner

No such animal exists.

A little bias can be a good thing, too; if I were interested in a particular horror or sci-fi flick, I'd prefer to read a review by someone predisposed to liking those same sorts of movies.

Some of Jim Carrey's more dramatic roles have been exceptionally well reviewed: Eternal Sunshine for the Spotless Mind, for instance. Phil opens the review by praising the acting ability Carrey has shown in other movies, so to accuse him of going in expecting a mindless comedy is absolutely without merit. He also made it a point to detail where he thought the film went wrong, so it's not as if it's just a series of quippy insults. If you think there's room for debate, make some counterpoints about what Phil wrote. Reply to specific sections of his review rather than making sweeping accusations.

I don't want to speak for Phil, but this review seems even-handed to me. He's a fan of this sort of movie, and he's hardly instantly dismissive of the film's lead. Phil just didn't find much of worth about The Number 23 in general.

sianlee

No such animal exists? Fair enough. I guess I have to sive through a load of bad critics to find good reviews.

What I wrote basicly summed up his entire review. There was no need to single out any particular part because it was all about the same thing. You can tell by the way he has written it, he was mocking the way they had the number 23 all over the movie. Such as his remark to Walters age -32 is 23 backwards. And his final thoughts summed up why I wrote my reply the way I did. Writing 23 and saying "Oh look I wrote 23".

With regards to having unbiased critics and that no such animal exists, I know most people get told what they want to hear, but not everyone can be satisifed.

Adam Tyner

Unbiased movie reviews do not, cannot, and should not exist. Reviews are subjective and oriented around opinions. Our perceptions are shaped by our biases. The only way to write an unbiased review is to have absolutely no frame of reference -- to have never experienced that genre before, to have no familiarity with the cast, writer, or director, and to have never seen any trailers or TV spots.

Your problem doesn't sound like it has anything to do with Phil's biases but by the fact that he disagrees with what you think about the movie. I'm sure Phil was familiar with the fact that The Number 23 was universally panned and went in without the highest of expectations, but if he doesn't have an inherent problem with the actor and tends to like this sort of movie, what's the problem?

That's what I'd recommend to you and anyone else: find reviewers whose tastes often match yours and use them as a baseline.

...but isn't that exactly what you were hoping to find? A reviewer echoing your thoughts on the film?

sianlee

What I meant by that was, is there's so many bad reviews about the movie it is hard to find a good one. I dont mind reading critics reviews, as I have read alot of them, some have good evidence to why they think it's a bad movie. The only reason why I replied to this review is because of how Phil mocked the movie. That's all.

nateman

He mocked the movie? So what?

Who cares if he mocked it or not. He thought it was bad and he is expressing that it is bad my mocking it. People mock/make fun of Star Wars all the time but I still love the movies.
I'm still going to pick The Number 23 up when it comes out on DVD July.24th. I don't judge any movie until I have seen it myself.

It's not that big of a deal.

Shannon Nutt

Actually I'm guessing the phase "Directed by Joel Schumacher" scares a lot more people around here than "Starring Jim Carrey". Schumacher has directed some horrible films.

Josh Z

Awesom movies like Cousins, Dying Young, A Time to Kill, Batman & Robin, 8mm, Flawless, Bad Company, and The Phantom of the Opera?

pinata242

Who would have known that posting a negative review would get such a big name star like Jim Carrey to join DVD Talk! Hope you stick around, Jim. BTW, I loved Liar Liar - it was so funny!

Music

????????

sianlee

I'm guessing Jim's not mentioned that much here in DvdTalk.

Guys i'm sorry for the harshness of my reply to the review. Like I said in my last reply, I just didnt like the sarcasm that Phil presented.

And I know Joel isn't a great director, but it's just an example of what can happen.

Music

No, I don't get the Jim Carrey joined DVD Talk remark.

Adam Tyner

It's a joke. The gag's that the only person who would defend the movie so vehemently is Jim Carrey.

Music

So if the movie is as bad as the review says... then


That joke sucked more than the movie....

sianlee

Actors don't defend their movies all the time.


People should see the movie before judging it. I generally find reviews useless, because how people feel about movies is based on their own opinion and experiences.

nateman

Excellently said.

I basically read the reviews just too see what they think of it for intrest. I mostly read it (even throw I'm going to buy it anyway) to see how the audio/video quality is & if some of the episodes of a TV Show on the set is syndicated.
With movies sometimes I will read what there thoughts are on the movie & if they think it's really good I'll get it to see for myself.